TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD MEN - 1935
Written
Jul to Sep 1931
ERB's working title
Tarzan and the Leopard Men
First published
Blue Book magazine, Aug 1932 to Jan 1933
Magazine title
Tarzan and the Leopard Men
First hardcover edition
ERB Inc, Sep 1935
Book illustrator
J Allen St John
Filmed
No, but Leopard Men appear in Tarzan and the Leopard Woman (1946)
and two episodes of Disney's The Legend of Tarzan TV show (2001)
and The Leopard Men episode of Sheena Queen of the Jungle (1955/56)
BACKGROUND
Burrough's pride was consistently wounded by the fact that critics constantly denigrated his work as mere "lowbrow entertainment".  He believed that he might gain more respect and prestige (and hopefully higher fees) if he could place a Tarzan story in one of the prestige magazines like Colliers or Cosmopolitan.  He submitted Tarzan and the Leopard Men to both in 1931 but received rejections.  He resigned himself to the fact that Tarzan was a character of "the pulps" and he sent it to Blue Book.  Donald Kennicott, the editor, complained that the Depression had caused a slump in magazine sales and offered only $5,000 - ERB had received $8,000 for Tarzan at the Earth's Core from them only three years earlier.  A compromise was reached with Kennicott eventually paying $6,000 and the work appeared in Blue Book from August 1932 to January 1933.  ERB Inc published the first hardcover edition and J Allen St John provided the illustrations.  This book, a rambling and disjointed work, is generally considered the worst in the Tarzan series. (Porges)
PLOT
The steel-clawed Leopard Men were looking for victims for their strange rites.  The secret cult struck terror in the hearts of all the villagers.  Only Orando of the Utengi dared to declare war on them.  And with Orando went Tarzan of the Apes - but a strangely changed Tarzan, who now believed that he was Muzimo, the spirit or demon who had been Orando's ancestor.  There were traitors among Orando's ancestors.  And in the village of the Leopard Men there was Kali Bwana, the white girl who had come to Africa to find a missing man.  Only Tarzan could save her... (1978 Ballantine paperback)
SOURCES
• Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Man Who Created Tarzan by Irwin Porges, 1975, Brigham Young University Press
COVERS
• Edward Mortelmans cover from the 1961 Four Square Books paperback edition is from my personal collection
• Joseph Chenoweth cover from the October 1932 issue of Blue Book magazine was pilfered from an eBay auction item
• R van Giffen cover from the 1968 Dutch Witte Raven paperback edition was pilfered from an eBay auction item
• J Allen St John cover from the dustjacket of the 1935 ERB Inc hardcover edition was pilfered from an eBay auction item
LYNX
• The full text of this novel is available on-line from Project Guttenburg's Tarzan and the Leopard Men page
• Read a summary of this novel at Tangor's Tarzan and Leopard Men Summarized page
• Colourful paperback covers are at Nick Knowles' Tarzan and the Leopard Men page
CAPTURE
• Bag yourself a copy of this novel at Amazon.com's Tarzan and the Leopard Men page or try eBay
Tarzan© is the property of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., Tarzana CA.
This independent, non-profit, fan-based analysis of the Tarzan material is copyright © 2002-2007 Paul Wickham
This page updated July 2006